Lawyers for plaintiffs in a Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. antitrust case over interchange fees asked for final approval of a settlement along with $720 million in legal fees and $27 million in expenses, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The attorneys, representing a class of more than 7 million merchants, filed papers in court on Thursday seeking a final blessing for the accord from U.S. District Judge John Gleeson. The settlement, estimated to be the largest ever in an antitrust case, would provide for about $7.25 billion in cash payouts, according to a memorandum filed by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, one of the lead law firms in the case. Merchant trade groups and some large retailers including Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Home Depot Inc. spoke out against the accord, claiming it is not large enough and gives card companies too much leeway to raise fees in the future. The lawsuit alleged that the card companies and some of the country’s largest banks conspired to fix prices of fees paid by merchants when customers pay with plastic.
